Deaf priest hears God’s call
One of the most difficult decisions Bea Murphy and her husband
Michael had to make took place in 1970. Their daughter Colleen was
born deaf, and at just 4 years old, she was sent 142 miles away from
their home in Liverpool to St. Mary’s School for the Deaf in
Buffalo.
“There was no deaf education program here,” Murphy said. “It
was just horrible.”
About 11 years later, Murphy met Rev. Tom Coughlin, the first deaf
priest to be ordained in the United States. At the request of
countless parents with deaf children, he was searching for property in
the Adirondack Mountains to begin a Catholic Deaf Youth Camp. When
Rev. Jim Quinn of the Syracuse Diocese went to meet with Coughlin,
Murphy went too.
“That’s when I met him,” she said. “That’s when he found
Camp Mark Seven.”
Camp Mark Seven, located at the former Mohawk Hotel in Old Forge, is
named after the Gospel of Mark, Chapter Seven, where Jesus healed a
deaf man.
“The [camp’s] primary purpose is to help deaf youth open up to
the truth of God’s existence and gift of life in our world,”
Coughlin said via email.
Programs include four-week sessions for deaf children and teenagers,
as well as month sessions for hearing children of deaf parents. The
camp thrives with long waiting lists, and survives solely on donations
and camper fees.
“When looking back, I realized that my goal and vision were quite
evolutionary in nature,” Coughlin said. “I did not become a priest
with a specific goal of establishing Camp Mark Seven. It just evolved
out of encountering various experiences and challenges in the field of
deaf ministry.”
Recently, Coughlin helped celebrate Mass at Christ the King Church in
Liverpool after he accepted an invitation from the pastor, Rev. James
Fritzen. Coughlin signed directly to the deaf persons in the audience
but an interpreter was also present to sign when it wasn’t practical
for Coughlin to continue.
The purpose for his visit?
To inform the faithful of his mission to help deaf men who want to
become priests, and for them to be able to use sign language as the
primary source of communication during Mass for those in the deaf
community.
The parishioners’ response was overwhelming, Fritzen said, who set
up a collection for Coughlin’s cause.
“I became a priest in a religious order in 1977 and I discovered
how hard it was for a deaf person like me to be mainstreamed in a
religious community that does not use sign language as the primary
language,” he said. “It was a very difficult and challenging
period of my life and it led me to decide to try to establish a
religious community. Like the saying goes, ‘Necessity is the mother
of invention.’”
In 2004 and with the help of several religious officials, he
accomplished what he set out to do. The religious community, named
Dominican Missionaries for the Deaf Apostolate, was first established
in Hayward, Calif., part of the Diocese of Oakland.
In 2007, it moved to San Antonio, Texas as the cost of living was too
high on the West Coast, and, as well, there was a need to have a deaf
priest for a deaf parish in that city.
“Deaf people prefer to have a signing priest as opposed to a sign
language interpreter in any Sunday Mass celebration,” Coughlin said.
“The reason for this is that the deaf people can relate more closely
with the holy sacrifice of Mass by looking at and celebrating with the
priest. However, deaf people do accept sign language interpreters if
there are no other choices.”
Murphy, who is a sign language interpreter, affirmed Coughlin’s
belief.
“When I attend Mass with Fr. Coughlin, it’s coming right from
him. It’s not going through an intermediary, which would be an
interpreter,” she said. “You can lose meaning depending on the
skill level of the interpreter, too.”
Both Bea and Michael Murphy began a parents group years ago that was
essential in the formation of the OCM BOCES Deaf Education program
(visit ocmboces.org).
“There’s one thing about deafness,” Murphy said. “You don’t
see the disability. If someone is in a wheelchair, it’s very
obvious. With deaf people, it’s not.”
In 1947, Coughlin was born in Malone, N.Y. to deaf parents and
grandparents.
“Sign language has been my prima lingua since birth,” he said.
“It is never easy to be deaf, especially when you have to learn to
live and compete in this hearing world.”
But things are looking up, Coughlin said, and with the religious
community for the deaf flourishing, each member feels like part of the
family, he said.
“Today in our religious community, the Dominican Missionaries for
the Deaf Apostolate, our seminarians, both deaf and hearing, do not
feel that they are out on the limb,” he said. “They feel they are
part of the whole family. This is the essence of religious life,
living together as one family with one mind, one heart.”
Currently there are 10 seminarians living in the San Antonio
Seminary, with one ready to be ordained in two years; three others in
four years.
“We depend 100 percent on donations as we do not receive any direct
funding from the church or government,” Coughlin said. “This is
one of the greatest challenges we face in our struggle to maintain our
religious community.”
For more information about Camp Mark 7, please contact Carrie Fisher
at [email protected]. To learn more about the seminary, visit
Dominicanmissionaries.org or call 210-627-6303.
Sources:
http://www.cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=1218647662
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